The Influence of European Central Bank Interest Rates upon Consumption in Eurozone Countries

First, this paper presents basic definitions of the consumption function and gives a summary of main theoretical concepts of consumption as well as an overview and discussion of important papers on consumption. Above all, papers examining the influence of the interest rate upon consumption are accented. Furthermore it contains a brief context summary of current and potential eurozone members, work of the ECB and execution of common monetary policy. Subsequently we discuss the hypothesis of a possibly asymmetric impact of the interest rate upon consumption in individual countries, expand and justify the hypothesis based on indebtedness, wealth, etc. Empirically, hypotheses are tested on historical data of individual countries: transmission between interest rates of central banks (later the ECB) and market interest rates, correlation analysis of consumption changes and central interest rates in individual countries, correlations with year-on-year changes. Also, consumption functions are estimated using time series models while testing alternative variables in the regression equations. We discuss analysis results and methods used; the influence of the interest rate upon consumption seems to be small and the relationship type is not much different across the eurozone countries. Eventually, we outline possible implications of our results with respect to the future of the eurozone and related activity of the ECB.